Two Americans of Haitian descent are among those arrested in connection with assassination
Police in Haiti said on Thursday they had identified the men who assassinated president Jovenel Moïse and that most of them were Colombian mercenaries.
León Charles, the country’s police chief, told a news conference that 26 of the 28-man unit were Colombian nationals, while the other two were Americans of Haitian descent.
He said 17 of the alleged conspirators — including the two Americans — were in police custody while the rest were either shot dead by the police as they tried to escape or were still on the run.
Gideon Long in Bogotá and Michael Stott in London YESTERDAY 11 Print this page Police in Haiti said on Thursday they had identified the men who assassinated president Jovenel Moïse and that most of them were Colombian mercenaries. León Charles, the country’s police chief, told a news conference that 26 of the 28-man unit were Colombian nationals, while the other two were Americans of Haitian descent. He said 17 of the alleged conspirators — including the two Americans — were in police custody while the rest were either shot dead by the police as they tried to escape or were still on the run. In Bogotá, Diego Molano, Colombia’s defence minister, said initial information about the suspects “suggests that they are Colombian citizens, retired members of the national army”.
Moïse, 53, was killed in his home in an affluent suburb of Port-au-Prince in the early hours of Wednesday. From the outset, the Haitian government blamed “a group of unidentified individuals, some of whom were speaking Spanish” and some English.
Moïse’s wife Martine was seriously wounded in the attack. She was flown to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for treatment where, according to Claude Joseph, Haiti’s interim prime minister, she was in a stable condition.
